Chapters Don't go in the Everfree forest at night.
Sweat dripped across Rarity's forehead, as she watched Sapphire Shores. A fake smile engulfed her face. It was obvious she was nervous, to be fair, what pony wouldn't be nervous if the most famous pony in Equestria came to them for an outfit to wear on their tour?
Sapphire Shores inspected the dress, feeling the fabric, smelling..? The gems, it looks like, and in all paying attention to every small detail. Rarity wasn't very good at reading other ponies, but as far as she can tell, this wasn't going well for her. "Well- uh, what do you think?" Rarity asked, breaking the silence surrounding the shop.
The cream-colored mare switched her focus to Rarity. "It's okay," Rarity was already afraid of what she was going to say next, "but I don't like this material. I think spider-silk would be better."
"S-spider silk? Of course! I'll get started on the new dress right away!" Rarity spat out, with an unrealistic smile across her lips.
"Good! I've got an appointment with my hair stylist in about twenty minutes or so, don't worry I'll be back tomorrow." Sapphire Shores said before trotting out the door.
The unicorn returned her uncomfortable face to it's normal expression and took a deep breath, now that she was finally alone. 'Okay now, where do I get spider-silk?' Rarity asked herself. She hadn't gotten a request for spider-silk in a while and the store where she buys all of her sewing materials stopped selling it. 'Well I could make my own spider-silk, there are spiders in the Everfree forest.'
'No, I can't go there, not a night,' Rarity argued with herself. 'But on the other hoof, she's coming back tomorrow and I need as much time to work as possible. I'll just take a moment, I just need a few spiders, right how bad could that be for Celestia's sake.'
Rarity's horn glowed, lighting up the darkness of Everfree forest surrounding her. It was cold and dark, and Rarity wanted to get the spiders and get it over with. She looked around, realizing she'd came across a dark, foggy clearing.
In the corner if her eye, she saw a bush shake rapidly, loudly. Rarity shivered as she murmured under her breath, just loud enough for another pony to hear. "Who's their?" She was too afraid to speak up, this must be how Fluttershy feels, even when she isn't in these kinds of possibly life-or-death situations.
Something snarled, but it was arguably impossible to see, what with all this fog.
"Is that you, Applejack... Rainbow Dash? Are you trying to pull some sort of nasty trick on me, or something?" She asked, worried the answer would be otherwise. "Cause, i-if you are, I must say, it isn't very funny."
A dark figure with glowing yellow eyes jumped out of the bushes and took a bite out of her arm. She screamed for help, but her cries just faded into the darkness trapping. The creature had sharp teeth, with blood dripping from it's teeth. Her blood. She felt its claws dig into her torso, her blood leaked out. It was too much for anypony to bare, she blacked out.
"Rarity? Are you okay?" A motherly sounding voice asked. It was faded but unmistakable to Rarity. She opened her eyes and saw a blurred image of Fluttershy bent over her. "Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you're awake! I didn't want the others to come because I was worried it would be too much for you." She said smiling.
Rarity's head was pounding. "Thank you dear, what happened last night?" She said, clenching her forehead with her hoof.
"I found you this morning just outside the Everfree forest. You were terribly wounded, so I took you inside and bandaged up your scars."
Rarity looked down at herself. She didn't realize it until then, but her left foreleg had a bandage wrapped around it, and it had a bright, crimson red blood seeking through it. Another bandage was around her lower torso it wasn't as bad, but she saw blood in patterns like scratches. 'What happened last night?' She also notice something else quite odd, her coat.. It was a ghostly pale white color. 'I don't remember dying my coat, was that even what had happened?' She wondered.
"I-I need to get home, and see if Sweetie Belle is okay. If I didn't get home last night, chances are that she is worried sick." Rarity tried to get up. Her legs wobbling like she was a broken table. Fluttershy put a hoof on her, gently, pushing her back onto the couch she was laying in before.
The butter-colored mare lifted her hoof once Rarity was down again. "Before you go, something concerns me. The scratches and bite mark-" Rarity looked at her arm assuming that is where she got bit "-you got are from a wolf, but these are much worse than any species I have seen and-"
"Relax, I'm okay, aren't I?" Rarity asked, "It doesn't matter what happened to me, as long as I survived. Now please, Fluttershy, be a dear and help me up?" Fluttershy did so, helping her off the couch and onto her hooves. "Thank you," she limped to the door, "Now I should go home and check on my sister, Thank you very much. You really are an amazing friend." Rarity thanked her once more, before leaving.
Fluttershy sighed, hoping that Rarity would be okay. She had slept all day, and it was getting late. Besides, it looked like she couldn't even stand on four hooves. The pegasus was worried for her friend, but she just decided to leave her be. She needed to get home, and that was that. "Come back if you need anything else." Fluttershy shouted out the window before Rarity was out of sight, waving. Rarity whipped her head over to face fluttershy and smiled, before continuing.
"Sweetie Belle," Rarity called as she walked into the empty Carousel Boutique. There was a molment of silence, just before a pale gray unicorn filly came running out from the other room to greet her sister. "I'm so sorry I was gone so long." Rarity gave Sweetie a hug with her forelegs.
Sweetie Belle started to tear up as she hugged her big sister. "I-I'm so glad you're okay. Wh-what happened last night?"
Rarity let her out of her grip and looked at her. "I honestly don't know myself, I guess I was attacked by a wolf, at least that's what Fluttershy said. But that doesn't matter anymore I-" Rarity was interupted by a loud ringing, going off in her head. She was slipping into another migrain, like she had when she first woke up at Fluttershy's place. "-Agh." She moaned, falling onto her hind legs, as she winced in pain. All she could hear was that same shreaking ring go off in her head.
The filly gasped, and attempted to help her sister up, but it was no help. "Rarity! Are you okay?" She cried, hopelessly sitting over Rarity's curled up body. "Can you hear me?" Unfortunitly, no she couldn't.
Lieing there, was the most painful experiance for Rarity. She could feel her body changing, her eyes dialated and turned a golden yellow, her teeth sharpened, claws grew out of her hooves, her ears and muzzle extended, and her coat grew longer- no she herself was getting bigger, ripping the bandages off of herself because they could no longer hold her. It was safe to say, she wasn't Rarity anymore. She looked up, her glowwing eyes focused on the young filly infront of her.
"Sis? Y-you look different." The young filly backed up, carefully, fearing the beastly pony.
The creature that was once her older sister, jumped out at Sweetie Belle and started to maul her. Sweetie Belle cried, and her eyes turned white in fear. Blood spewed out of the small body, as she teared into it with her teath. She held her down with her forelegs, but didn't really scratch her.
When all hope seemed lost for the poor filly, a creature, fairly simular to Rarity jumped onto her through a large-framed window. Shards of glass dug into her fur, but she didn't seem to care. It pinned Rarity onto the floor, obiously showing to be the stronger mare, and growled at her. Sweetie Belle watched in horror, blood leaking out of her.
"Don't hurt my sister!" Sweetie Belle yelled out. The creature turned to face her. Sweetie was able to get a good look at her, she was light gray, with a darker gray mane. Her eyes were also a glowing yellow, but this could just be because she is one of those, werewolf thing? Is that the correct term? Besides that her cutie mark was a purple music note. The creature looked back down at Rarity, and snarled.
Rarity tried to shake loose, but it was hopeless to escape, and she was already extremely weak. She gave up and fainted due to the lack of blood.
The next morning, Rarity woke up, she was her normal pony-self. She looked around at her surroundings, she was at the Carousel Boutique, where she was the night before. Blood covered the ground, and Sweetie Belle was nowere in sight. 'Oh no, what have I done.' She thought. Looking about the room some more she saw a gray pony in the corner of the room, sleeping.
"Where is Sweetie Belle? What have you done with her?!" Rarity shouted at the gray mare, which ended up waking her up. She looked around before turning to Rarity. "Where is my sister?"
"Woah, me, you're the one who mauled her last night. If it wasn't for me she'd be dead! You're lucky she was able to make it to the hospital, before she bleed out, or even worse!" She shouted right back at her.
Rarity got up and walked to a mirror. She couldn't beleave what she saw. Her teeth had a red tint in them. She had blood splattered everywhere. She looked at her hooves, and started to sob. "What have I done?" She asked herself. Rarity didn't know what was going on, it felt like one crule dream, but one way or another, it was real.
Tears came rolling down from Rarity's cheeks, as she stared into a bloody reflection of herself. She didn't know what happened, and Sweetie Belle would most likely be too afraid to even look her in the eyes. It was completely understandable, and it might happen again fof all she knew.
"Sweetie Belle." Rarity whispered her name under her breath.
The gray mare walked over to her, and put a hoof on her back. "You know I never caught your name."
"Rarity," she replied. Rarity then cocked her head down and let her tears fall to the ground. "Why do you care anyway? I'm just... A monster."
"My name is Octavia," The gray pony smiled sheepishly. "And it isn't your fault. What happened last night. I know how you feel, when I first turned, I almost killed my best friend, Vinyl Scratch," she looked up, her a tear shead from her eye. "I never talked to her after that."
The unicorn looked at Octavia, she felt guilty for being the room when she bought it up. Rarity felt like it was her fault. "I'm sorry, I didn't know..."
"It's not your fault. I don't want that to happen to you and your sister though, the way she looked at you last night,.. The fear in her eyes," Octavia looked at her simpathetically, "there is no way you can reverse this curse, I'm sorry. But Rarity, if you let me I can help you control yourself." Octavia lifted her right foreleg and offered a hoof.
Rarity thought over this offer for a moment. 'What other option do I have? Even if Octavia is lieing, what do I have to lose?' She took her hoof and gripped Octavia's with it, shaking them.
"First thing's first, it isn't safe to stay here, so we have to retreat, there are some abandoned cabins in the Everfree forest-" Rarity trembled when she heard her say those words, "-we can stay in," Octavia Rarity had started trembling in fear. "Don't worry, I'll protect you." She said putting a hoof around the unicorn's back, calming her down a little bit.
Rarity stayed quiet, looking at the gray mare. She waited to see if Octavia had any more to say to her.
"Now," Octavia started. "We have to leave right away." Octavia grabbed Rarity by the hoof, and they left the Botique, using the back door. They headed towards the forest.
"What about that one there?" Rarity asked, lifting her foreleg, pointing in the direction of a cabin. The wood on the sides had moss growing on it, and their were holes in the ceiling. It looked like it hadn't had anypony living in it for a while now, based on the condition it was in.
"No, we're too close to the edge of the forest now, and we don't want to draw attention, so we need to be in the center if the Everfree Forest or so." Octavia replied in a very stern tone of voice, barely glancing at the house as they walked along the Everfree Forest together.
Rarity pondered for a minute, rembering aomething. "Ooh, I have an idea," She began. Octavia stopped trotting, and turned, looked over at her. "What about Celestia and Luna's abandoned castle, nopony ever goes there exept for a few times when me and my friends where there, but that was different, Princess Celestia needed the Elements Of Harmony, so-"
Octavia interupted her, "Wait, you're an Element Of Harmony?"
Rarity notted her head. "Generousity." She answered.
"Hm, well nevermind that now. That's actually a good idea. But what if your friends come looking for you, wouldn't they try to look there?" The grey mare asked.
The unicorn gave in a bit of thought, but just replied with a simple "I doubt it" and shrugged. "Wait- you never said anything about not being able to see my friends," Her expression quickly changed to one of anger. "How come I can't see them?"
"Because, it's for their safety. You don't want them ending up like your sister do you? In time, Rarity, you will be able to go back, but for now we must be alone," Octavia explained, "Understood?" Rarity understood completely, but the thought gave her a chill.
"Understood." Rarity murmured remembering what she did to Sweetie Belle. She imagined her friends, lieing in puddles of blood unconcious, as they walked to the castle. She felt like she was going to vomit.
